The bottom line is clear: Our vital interests in Afghanistan are limited and military victory is not the key to achieving them. On the contrary, waging a lengthy counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan may well do more to aid Taliban recruiting than to dismantle the group, help spread conflict further into Pakistan, unify radical groups that might otherwise be quarreling amongst themselves, threaten the long-term health of the U.S. economy, and prevent the U.S. government from turning its full attention to other pressing problems. -- Afghanistan Study Group

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Parkersburg native killed in Afghanistan...William Glenn Allen, 51, of Munhall, Pa., died Sept. 6 while working as an electrician on the LOGCAP IV program in Howz-e-Madad in Kandahar province, according to Dyncorp International. Allen was killed at the time of the attack while two others later died of wounds received, according to Dyncorp. The others included Alan Herzel, 48, of Milton, Fla., who worked as a plumber foreman.

Baghdad:#1: A civil servant working for the Iraqi Rebuilding and Housing Ministry was seriously wounded when he came under gunmen fire in western Baghdad. “The attack took place yesterday night in the al-Qadissiya neighborhood, western Baghdad,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Wednesday.

#2: Undersecretary of the Iraqi Labor Ministry, Nouri al-Halfi, survived assassination on Wednesday when a roadside bomb hit his motorcade in northeastern Baghdad. “The blast took place near the ministry’s building in the al-Wazeeriya neighborhood, northeastern Baghdad,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He explained that none of the persons who were in the motorcade were wounded in the blast, but two civilians who were nearby the explosion’s location were injured.

#3: Four civilians were wounded on Wednesday when a roadside bomb went off in central Baghdad. “The blast occurred in the al-Karada neighborhood, central Baghdad,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#4: Armed men in a speeding car opened fire upon a checkpoint in Karrada In Street, central Baghdad, Tuesday, injuring one national policeman.

#5: Armed men in a car opened fire upon the home of a Staff Colonel in the army in Saidiyah neighbourhood, south Baghdad, Tuesday, riddling his outer gate and his car with bullets, without causing any casualties. There were several threat notes left at the colonel's door during the past few weeks, said security authorities.

#6: Two unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad today, both in Abu Nowas Street, central Baghdad; the body of a young man in his twenties, with gun-shot wounds, and a man in his forties with signs of torture.

Babel Prv:#1: “A force from the Division also defused two Katyusha rockets and their launching pads in the area of al-Tahiriya, north of Babel,” he added.

Mortar rounds slammed into Calsu military base in north Babil, Tuesday. No casualties were reported. The U.S. military conducted raid operations in the nearby neighbourhoods and found two Katyusha rockets.

Karbala area:#1: One U.S. vehicle was devastated on Wednesday when a roadside bomb went off targeting a convoy of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (P.R.T) north of Karbala city. “The blast took place at the al-Husseiniya area, 20 km north of Karbala,” a local media source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He explained that U.S. forces cordoned the blast area.

Abu Ghraib:#1: Armed men in a speeding car, using pistols fitted with silencers, shot and killed an employee of Iraqi Airways on the old Abu Ghraib main street, west Baghdad, Tuesday.

Dujail:#1: Armed men in a speeding car shot and killed a man on his doorstep in Dujail district, to the south of Tikrit, Tuesday.

Kurdistan:#1: Border areas in the Iraqi Kurdistan region came under Turkish artillery fire on Tuesday, leaving five civilians wounded and causing material damage, according to an official source in the Kurdish peshmerga forces. “The Turkish artillery pounded the areas of Mezouri and Arkoush in Shirwan, on the Kurdistan borderlines, leaving five civilians wounded and causing financial damage to local residents’ property,” the source, who preferred not to be named, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Mosul:#1: Iraqi officials say a roadside bomb has struck a bus carrying Iraqi soldiers, killing nine and injuring five more near the northern city of Mosul. Iraqi military and police officials say the blast hit the vehicle Wednesday afternoon on the highway between Mosul and the town of Tal Afar, 260 miles (420 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad.

Al Anbar Prv:#1: U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a joint raid in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah early Wednesday, killing seven people, Iraqi officials said. On Wednesday, Iraqi special forces and American troops cordoned off a neighbourhood in the western part of Fallujah at about 2 a.m. before raiding several houses, police and hospital officials said. A security official in the city said the American and Iraqi forces took four of the dead bodies with them and the other three were taken by local police to the morgue. A U.S. military press officer, Staff Sgt. Kelli Lane, confirmed there was an Iraqi planned and led joint counter terrorism operation in Fallujah, but did not say what role the American forces played. She referred all other questions to the Iraqi government.

Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"#1: US drones fired off a volley of missiles targeting Al-Qaeda linked fighters in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt Wednesday, killing 12 militants in the third deadly strike in 24 hours, security officials said. The pre-dawn attack was directed at the Haqqani network, officials said, a Pakistan-based group with links to both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and one of the toughest foes for foreign forces in the war in neighbouring Afghanistan. Residents said the targeted houses had been rented out to militants by local tribesman Bacha Khan and were destroyed in the attacks, which caused panic in the village. The intelligence official put the number of missiles fired as 10, saying several drones came from all directions, while another said three miliants were also wounded in the strike.

#2: U.S. forces launched a major operation in southern Afghanistan early Wednesday in the district that gave birth to the Taliban movement, in what could be one of the most important offensives of the war. Thousands of U.S. and Afghan troops encircled and swooped into a belt of lush farm land in Zhari district, a sanctuary and staging post for the Taliban just west of Kandahar city known to foreign soldiers as “the heart of darkness.” Key insurgent-held villages such as Mukuan, Pashmul and Singesar are the target, areas essentially untouched by coalition forces since they entered Afghanistan in 2001. The operation began at 4 a.m. local time Wednesday, approximately 7:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

#3: A Polish soldier was badly wounded on Tuesday after the Warrior Base in Ghazni province, south east Afghanistan was shelled by insurgents. The soldier was taken by Mi-17 medical helicopter to a field hospital where he is currently under constant medical supervision.

#4: At least 13 people including 2 police, a woman and a child were wounded in an explosion in the western Herat province on Tuesday night. The incident happened near a sports stadium after Farhad Darya, a famous Afghan singer had just finished a music concert.

#5: An Afghan civilian was killed after ignoring several warnings from NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops to stop approaching a security perimeter in southeastern Paktika province on Tuesday, ISAF said.

#6: An ISAF air strike killed a Taliban commander in Maidan Wardak province, west of Kabul, on Tuesday, the alliance said. The commander, identified by ISAF as Hamdullah, was planning attacks in Kabul and surrounding provinces to disrupt Saturday's parliamentary elections, it said.

#7: A mine detonated by militants in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province injured a soldier of NATO-led troops on Tuesday, a spokesman of the alliance in the province, Wessel said. "A group of German soldiers went to visit a bridge exploded by Taliban insurgents in Chardara district and suddenly a bomb planted by Taliban militants went off injuring a soldier," Wessel told Xinhua.